Intel X299 HEDT Platform With Kaby Lake X CPUs To Be Unveiled at PC Gaming Show on 12th June – First X299 Motherboards Teased by AIBs

Intel just went into full gear for the launch of their next-generation X299 platform. The new platform will be launched next month and it looks like Intel is going unveil the chips at a grand event on 12th June.

It’s Intel, Not AMD, who will be showcasing Next-Gen HEDT Hardware at This Year’s PC Gaming Show – X299 Platform, Kaby Lake X CPUs and More

Unlike the last two events, this year’s PC Gaming Show will be hosted by Intel and PCGamer. The event will focus on several high-end desktop technologies that Intel is bringing for gamers and professional PC users.

The date actually falls in line with our previous reports where we exclusively confirmed that the Intel X299 NDA will end on 12th June followed by market availability on 26th June. There’s also the Kaby Lake X and Skylake X processors which will be unveiled the same day, however, their availability is still planned for a later date.

PC Gamer presents the PC Gaming Show powered by Intel, the third annual event for PC gaming at E3, returns in 2017 as part of the official E3 conference schedule. With new headline sponsor Intel, the PC Gaming Show will take place live from The Theater at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on Monday, June 12 at 10am PDT. The event will showcase exclusive announcements, trailers and discussion from many of the most exciting developers and projects on the platform. Once again, proceedings will be hosted by PC fan-favorite, Sean “Day[9]” Plott. via PC Gaming Show

Intel X299 Motherboard Teasers From Various MSI and AORUS

While we are still a month away from the first X299 motherboard reveal, MSI and AORUS gave us a little glimpse of their upcoming products. The MSI X299 motherboard being teased features a very high-end and fully black board design. The motherboard carries lots of LEDs for RGB and we can clearly see an extension of the PCB cover running under the LGA 2066 socket. There are four PCIe 3.0 x16 slots that are ideally spaced to support up to quad-way SLI and CrossFireX graphics cards.

The motherboard also comes with three M.2 slots, all of which carry M.2 shields from MSI. Two of the M.2 slots are full length while the one in the middle is half length. MSI’s Audio Boost IV powers the audio while a 6-pin power connector on the top PCIe slot adds additional power to the board when running multiple graphics cards. There’s a large heatsink housed on top of the X299 chipset which features MSI’s Dragoon logo.

Moving on, we have the AORUS X299 motherboard and it looks to feature several PCIe 3.0 x16 slots to carry the abundance of PCIe lanes featured on Skylake X processors. The large AORUS logo is seen on heatsink that covers the X299 PCH. AORUS is also using their own, exclusively designed M.2 Thermal Guard for M.2 drive cooling and protection under heavy loads. AORUS is also using a metallic cover on the M.2 slots which are a nice addition and add durability to the board.

Intel Skylake X Processor Family For Intel X299 Platform Details

The Skylake X family in particular will feature five SKUs that include a 12 core, 10 core, 8 core and a 6 core model. The 10, 8 and 6 core models will be based on the Skylake architecture. All Skylake-X chips will feature a rated TDP of 140W and we can expect clock speeds north of the 3.0 GHz range and boosts of 4.0 GHz+ on the 6 core and 8 core chips. The 12 core chip will be the new flagship and will come with more PCIe lanes with faster memory support.

Intel’s new X299 chipset will be the latest PCH to support the enthusiast processors. The X299 platform will be centered around the LGA 2066 socket which will be compatible with at least two generations of processors. In specs, the X299 chipset offers up to 24 PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes. The chip also offers up to quad channel memory with speeds up to DDR4-2667 MHz (native). Kaby Lake-X series processors will only support dual channel RAM but will stick to the native speeds of 2667 MHz.

Intel Kaby Lake X Processor Family For Intel X299 Platform Details

The Intel Kaby Lake X processor lineup is a new entrant to the HEDT landscape. The two processors that are featured in this lineup are quad cores. The Core i7 7740K and Core i5 7640K will be available under a price tag of $400 US.

The general aim of these processors is to provide users an incentive to upgrade to the HEDT platform without burning a lot of cash. Users can go the mainstream route with the current Kaby Lake S family, but for those who want to upgrade to a higher end processor can go for a Kaby Lake X CPU and later purchase a 6, 8, 10 or 12 core processor.

The Intel Core i7 7740K processor will become the fastest Core i7 chip in the Kaby Lake lineup. It will replace the Core i7 7700K with slightly better specs. This chip features a quad core, hyper-threaded design. The chip is based on the latest 14nm+ process node which delivers improved efficiency and performance on the existing 14nm FinFET technology.

The clock speeds are rated 4.2 GHz base and 4.5 GHz boost. The processor packs 8 MB of L3 cache and has a TDP of 112W. There’s no word on the retail price but it should be a bit higher, or if Intel does feel like offering real competition to the Ryzen chips, they could price it the same as the Core i7 7700K while dropping the former in price.

The Intel Core i5 7640K processor will be the first instance of a Core i5 chip on the HEDT platform. This chip features a quad core design along with four threads. The chip is based on the latest 14nm+ process node which delivers improved efficiency and performance on the existing 14nm FinFET technology. The clock speeds are rated at 4.0 GHz base, but boost would be beyond 4 GHz. The processor packs 6 MB of L3 cache. The TDP is rated at 112W, just like the Core i7 processor in the Kaby Lake-X family.

Other updates will include support for quad channel memory which will be a good bump over dual channel. The new X299 platform would offer more PCIe lanes from the CPU and PCH. Both quad cores would be pitted against 6 core Ryzen chips as current Intel quad cores provide good productivity and gaming performance against the competition.

Intel Kaby Lake-X Lineup

CPU Name

Intel Core i5-7600K

Intel Core i5-7640X

Intel Core i7-7700K

Intel Core i7-7740X

CPU Process

14nm+

14nm+

14nm+

14nm+

Cores/Threads

4/4

4/4

4/8

4/8

Base Clock

3.8 GHz

4.0 GHz

4.3 GHz

4.2 GHz

Boost Clock

4.2 GHz

4.2 GHz

4.5 GHz

4.5 GHz

L3 Cache

6 MB L3

6 MB L3

8 MB L3

8 MB L3

Memory Support

DDR4 Dual Channel

DDR4 Dual Channel

DDR4 Dual Channel

DDR4 Dual Channel

Socket Type

LGA 1151

LGA 2066

LGA 1151

LGA 2066

TDP

91W

112W

91W

112W

Price

$242

$242

$339

$339

The Skylake X and Kaby Lake X are meant to make a formal debut on 30th May followed by market availability by the end of June. This marks the announcement at PC Gaming Show which is in line with what we have recently been hearing so expect to see lots of motherboards being shown off at the event floor.